Shanghai Nights

Our first week in Shanghai is almost past and on Sunday, or one day off in the week (same working hours as Nanjing L no perks) we all went downtown into central Shanghai. Since I don’t have Matt here to be my guide around Shanghai, as he has a freakishly good sense of direction and a mini map etched into his brain of everywhere he’s ever been, I paid extra EXTRA attention about how to get to the train station and through the train station into Shanghai so that if we ever want to venture out on our own we can without having to rely on the Chinese people all the time.

Since we live on the outskirts of Shanghai we have to get a bus to get the metro into town. At the metro station there was a woman selling puppies…and a man selling RABBITS! I miss Nayi so much but I have to resist buying another rabbit!

We had briefly been through central Shanghai on our first business trip here back in December but this time we got to see a lot more. We also noticed how many westerners there are here. 

Losers.

A lot more than in Nanjing but even though our kind were more popular here, it didn’t stop every other native staring. Although, I must admit, I stare at white people here too! by the end of the day I was so sick of westerners! All I could think was that they were just petty tourists, not soaking up an experience like us, however, I’m sure they were, lots of the them looked quite at home. I liked us being the only ones but in Shanghai, suddenly we were special anymore. I felt like Leonardo Dicaprio coming back from the beach into mainland Thailand! (Note to parents: ‘The Beach’ is on my DVD shelf, watch it to understand this.)

We met Jackie Chan! 

We got  some taxis to take us to a different part of the centre that is more like the Confucius Temple in Nanjing. 

How cool is this? Dragon Gate.

Lots of little stalls with various items; old coins, Chairman Mao memorabilia, fans, shoes and crap. 

Warren buying house shoes. 12 Yuan. Bargain.

My favourite type of place that is native to China. Amongst all this clutter I finally bought what I’ve been meaning to get in Nanjing. An art stamp carved with my name in English and Chinese characters for stamping my art pieces. It’s a very popular tourist souvenir but I will actually use. I want to get another one that doesn’t simply say ‘Gillian’ but that has a little motif or logo that will act as my signature on my art.

Chinese markets like these, like any market really, have some lovely items, worth buying even if they are popular souvenirs or real finds, but then you really do get the crap…

 He is selling baps with faces drawn on!!! Whaaaa?

There was a man selling a ‘Chinese Bamboo Sax’. It did sound pretty cool. He was a great character when he played. Unfortunately I only caught the last note of his show!

We grabbed lunch in some crazy busy place that was like a massive over-glorified canteen. Everyone was moving so fast and there was so much to choose from but mostly non-vegetarian, so I just grabbed a couple of things, some noodles and some tarts and moved on. I was raging when my bill was totaled to 23 Yuan!!! When I found Alex, he told me that he paid 55 Yuan for his!!! Not happy.  

On our last visit to Shanghai we were taken to a place called People’s Square where we could look out across the river and some remarkable architecture.

 Shiny!

This time we went to the other side of the river to experience the buildings. We found a Starbucks, sat down with our coffees and Nicola’s perfect Tuna sandwich and watched the sunset over the Shanghai skyline.

 Warren, he has The Cool. 

 

Mini Tour

Mini Tour

 

Allow me to show you our new digs in Shanghai. Like I mentioned in a previous post, it’s like a house on top of an apartment block. 6 rooms, 3 large (for me, Alex and Nicola) and 3 small (for Sin, Colour, Warren, Jack, Aaron and Phoenix – we offered to swap so the pairs can have the bigger rooms but they insisted, they think I can’t handle a small room…they don’t know of my 16 years in the box room and 2 years in the box room at university!)

There isn’t a lot to show really, the house is fairly empty, containing only a few pieces of furniture. I doubt it will become full of things and more homely, we all don’t want to be here, the homes we want are back in Nanjing!

Like I also mentioned before the area we work in a a large technology park or industrial estate. This is our scenery…

Last Day in Nanjing

It was our last day in Nanjing and also the last day for some of the Chinese people at the studio who are being sent to Shanghai along with us, so we all went out together to what we thought was Nanjing Zoo. When we got there, there was a lot more than a zoo!

 This place was far outside Nanjing so we had to be up early to meet Ono and Dumpling at our studio to get the subway to the bus that would take us to the ‘zoo’. At the bus stop there were lots of people and as soon as the bus pulled up everyone ran to get on board. It was completely crazy. Only other time I’ve seen that was when I met Avril Lavigne! It was honestly like a celebrity had showed up and everyone wanted a feel! The reason everyone wanted on first so badly was because the journey was over an hour long and you don’t want to be standing up that whole time…like we did. 

Matt, Nicola, Alex, Ono, Dumpling, Moon, Colour, Jenny, Macy, Animo, Animo’s ‘girl’, Aaron, Aaron’s wife and I all arrived at the zoo. Turns out the ‘zoo’ is a lot more. 

The Chinese people had brought lots of food for a BBQ, we figured it was just an us thing that we would do, like you would have BBQs on the beach in Bournemouth or in the park at Stormont but there was a massive BBQ area where dozens of people could have their own BBQ. 

Before we cooked and ate we went on the many rides the ‘zoo’ had to offer. There was a large fairground located here, with a rollercoaster, dodgems, swing thing, shaker thing and other rides I can’t name. 

Animo getting competitive! 

High speed collision? Not so much...

 

So we each forked out 120 Yuan unexpectedly to go on all these rides but it was bloody fun. Of course Matt got sick! He was the only one however, the swing thing took it out of everyone. 

While the rest of us were feeling a bit nauseous Nicola and Moon went on the suspen

ded bouncy ball ride thing! After that we decided to eat.

It's a long video...skip to the middle!

 Animo got the fire a-going with a faggot of sticks that the park provides, as well as little stools and a grill. 

They had a strange method of cooking their BBQ. They placed a large sheet of tinfoil on top of the grill and  placed the meat on top of that and doused the meat with oil. I thought, ‘That’s genius! I’d never have thunk that up!’ 

But then…

…that’s why. They had brought veggie stuffs for me, eggplant, corn on the cob and mushrooms, which were all delicious. Note to self, put cumin powder on stuff, it’s goooood. 

Poo twins.

After our BBQ, we eventually headed onto the zoo. This is the infamous zoo that Tori, a previous AIB student who came out here on work experience with Alex back in 2006 (?), came out crying from because of how they mistreated the animals. They have an animal show in which they whip the animals to make them perform for us. Luckily/unfortunately we were too late to see any showing. Obviously it’s a terrible thing and I don’t want to see any animals being mistreated but the new found journalist in me wants to see it so I can show you all and experience China in all its not so much glory. Hopefully, when we return from Shanghai in April/May we can go back and catch the cruelty show.

 Most of the animals here were locked up in their cages. Usually zoo leave the gates open so they can come in and out as they please but not here. The also let you buy food to feed the monkeys. People were just throwing oranges and peanuts, not to the monkeys but AT the monkeys! Scornful looks were fired at them from all four of us. Their variety of animals wasn’t great, they actually had Lions and Tigers and Bears…and monkeys, I think they belonged to the Wicked Witch of the West we saw earlier…It is a pretty dreadful zoo. The animals clearly aren’t there for conservation but they’re a lot bigger than Nayi, so I can’t save these ones. 

Shanghai Adventures

Alex, Nicola and I have been relocated to Shanghai from Nanjing to work on the film’s character design and model pack more closely with the Shanghai animators who are helping. An early start at 6am saw us up and getting ready to head to the train station. Each of us packed enough to almost fill the suitcases we moved to China with…then we met Warren outside our apartment equipped with one small rucksack and a small sports bag…well he’s a man, of course he won’t take as much…but then we met everyone else and they had the same if not less than Warren. Embarrassed. The lame westerners need all their stuff.

 We arrived in Shanghai at around 10am and made our way straight to the animation studio where we grabbed some lunch and then remained in the studio kinda doing not much until 8pm or so. Warren had spent his whole day house hunting for us and when he found somewhere he had to go get bedding and stuff. Busy day for him.

I needed a new desktop picture...so I drew Nayi.

 We were taken to our new house around 8pm. I couldn’t understand why everyone was saying ‘House’, ‘House’ surely there are no houses in China! Not in the major cities anyway. It turns out it’s an apartment but a massive one with 2 floors and loads of rooms, so it really is a house, a house on the sixth floor of an apartment block.

 Downstairs there are 3 larger bedrooms, a kitchen and a bathroom and upstairs there are 3 very small rooms with no windows and a smaller bathroom. The Chinese kindly let us have the downstairs, so I guess we can be with each other and they can be with each other but it’s completely unfair on them! I’m living in the biggest room in the house with 2 beds (one mattress) and loads of space, while Warren and Jack are sharing a small room with 2 mattresses on the floor. I tried to offer to sway but there hospitality won out. Hopefully they will ask me to swap soon, cause 2 months in that little room will be a nightmare for them!

 Alex and Nicola have the misfortune of not have mattresses, but instead wooden slats with a thin spongy blanket over the top, I fell really bad for them, if I’d have had to sleep on that I think I would’ve broken down in tears right on the spot! I’m spoiled…with my mattress rich life I’ve led!

 When we were here last back in December for 2 /3 days, we thought that the place where the studio is was completely abandoned. It’s in a place called a Technology Park, like the one in Belfast next to the docks. A massive place of nothing but offices and random companies and building work and when we returned here we wondered how we were going to eat and live in such a place but if you glance down the side roads, it turns out there’s lots of places to eat, just like in Nanjing…almost.

 There are some perks of being in Shanghai. Number one is the number one room. There is an actual toilet here, on you can sit down on and it has a door and everything AND there is soap in the bathroom too! One shop we went into sells KitKats, which is cool, even though it’s smaller that the normal KitKat. Living it up in Shanghai. More perks yet to be discovered. 

UPDATE

 News of the week! No photos to upload this time, just some changes to announce. The adventures of us 4 are being divided! Alex, Nicola and I are being sent to Shanghai  to work on the model packs for the film for the next month and a half while Matt is being left in Nanjing to carry on work on the storyboards. Sad times. But we must get on with it. So no longer will the site tell you of Nanjing Adventures but now, Shanghai Adventures. 

Nicola's Day of Sadness

Last Saturday, the Sun finally showed its face here in Nanjing! So we all sat outside in the sunshine for an extra long lunch and luckily Nicola was overcome by a need to take more photos...again. Above is a photo of most of the people from Glory & Dream studio. 

And this is my illustration of that day! Done on the concrete with Matt's brand new mechanical pencil. 

The sunshine does bring out the crazies..

Nicola was feeling a little home sick a couple of weeks ago when Betty was about to go home back to Bournemouth, so Calvin took us all out for some western food that night. 

We went to a french restaurant in the University area called Les 5 Sens. It was the best food I've had since I've been here. I've never been a huge fan of eastern food, I like my junk food and bread and cheese, so I ordered French Onion Soup and Apple Tart with Vanilla Ice Cream. I will be returned very soon to get Mushroom Quiche and Chocolate Fondant and/or creme brule.

The following day Matt and I went out on a day trip around the local spots in Nanjing and in search of a magincal Bakery I had read about online called Skyways. It was allegedly located in a place we had frequented several times before...the DVD shops!!! It was a blistering hot Sunday afternoon and we walked up and down the road it was supposed to be on and just as we were about to give up we noticed a massive modern white building called 'Skyways'. It was brilliant! They have little forms that you simply fill in what you want in your sandwich and which bread etc. kind of like Subway but you know....good and actually fresh! they also sell lots of pastries and cakes and ice cream. It was a good weekend for food!!!